


Broken

by laceymcbain



Series: Shadows & Stone: Dark Spaces [5]
Category: DCU, Smallville, Spider-Man (Movieverse)
Genre: Best Friends, Boarding School, Drugs, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protectiveness, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laceymcbain/pseuds/laceymcbain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Age 15.  Sequel to "Harry."  Follows immediately after Bruce and Lex leave Harry's room.</p><p>Lex was like an amusement park ride with all the safety switches turned off and no guarantee of brakes at the end.  Bruce kept waiting for the day when Lex was going to derail himself and everyone around him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

Bruce skirted the dark hallway with Lex behind him. He could hear Lex's uneven breathing as they moved from Harry's room up the stairs to their own. Although they were unlikely to encounter anyone in the hall, Bruce felt it best to be cautious. Neither of them needed any more trouble. Particularly Lex.

Bruce pushed open the door to their room, moving aside for Lex to enter. Lex sat gingerly on the edge of his bed, pulling off the plain white shirt that was still unbuttoned from Harry's ministrations. Bruce flicked on the bedside lamp.

"Jesus Christ, my ribs hurt," Lex said through clenched teeth.

"Really?" Bruce said, shutting the door silently. "You were putting on quite the show for Harry when I walked in."

"What?"

"Thought you didn't like to be touched, Lex," Bruce said, walking back and forth in the space between their beds.

"He was checking ... oh, for God's sake, Bruce, you pick a hell of a time to get jealous." Lex was indignant. "Just get the goddamn bandages and wrap this for me, will you?"

Bruce glared. He held up the roll of bandages Harry had given him.

"Maybe you would've rather had Harry do this." Bruce knelt down in front of Lex and scowled.

"And miss your charming bedside manner?"

"Lift your arms," Bruce ordered, starting to unwind the bandage against Lex's pale flesh. He let his fingers linger for a moment over the spot where bruises were beginning to purple Lex's skin and pulled the bandage a little tighter despite Lex's wince.

"It has to be tight enough to knit the bone together if it's cracked," Bruce said, and there was no apology in his tone. "Even with your recovery time. And it'll help you breathe."

Lex just nodded and didn't move as Bruce's large hands wrapped the bandage around and around him until the roll was spent. He taped the end in place, running a hand lightly over the seam. "That should do."

"Thanks," Lex said softly, and lay on his left side on the narrow edge of the bed.

Bruce looked at him for a moment. Lex's pale skin was even more pale than usual, his eyes closed, breathing requiring effort, more like when Lex was younger--when his asthma was bad, when he still had red hair that fell to his shoulders. Bruce fought the urge to reach out and run a hand over Lex's scalp. He was still too angry to be tender.

"You're hovering," Lex said without opening his eyes. Bruce moved to lay on his own bed, clicking off the light as he did so. He didn't bother to undress. He was too tightly wound to focus on anything except this thing with Lex, the evening gone wrong.

"Bruce, just say what you want to say. Don't torture me for two hours with the brooding and the glaring because I'm really not in the mood tonight. My body hurts, my high is gone, and I feel like shit."

"It was stupid."

"I'm aware of that."

"It was fucking stupid."

"No points for originality, but accurate nonetheless."

"What were you _thinking_?"

Bruce heard Lex sigh on the other side of the room. Times like this he wanted to just pick him up and shake him. Lex was like an amusement park ride with all the safety switches turned off and no guarantee of brakes at the end. Bruce kept waiting for the day when Lex was going to derail himself and everyone around him.

"Do you want the truth?"

Bruce growled softly in answer.

"Of course, you do. I thought it would be simple. They'd come to the lab, I'd give them the stuff, money would change hands, we'd all go on our merry way."

"And?"

"Well, it didn't turn out that way."

"No kidding--unless being held down and forced to snort your own drugs was part of the plan."

"No," Lex said quietly. Bruce could tell he'd struck a nerve. Lex hated being out of control more than anything. Bruce didn't really get the drug thing, but at least when Lex took something, he took it with full knowledge of the probable consequences, but this--having his face shoved in it until he had to breathe it in--wasn't the same at all.

"What about the guy working over your ribs? Was he part of the plan?"

"No."

"And the pants around your ankles?" Bruce saw Lex's eyes snap shut, face turn deeper into his pillow. Bullseye.

"An unforeseen complication," Lex replied, but there was no humour in his voice. Bruce peered through the darkness and watched Lex wrap his arms around himself.

"Lex." Bruce felt something that might have been regret, but the sight of finding Lex bent over one of the lab tables and screaming bloody murder was still fresh in his mind. He needed Lex to understand how that felt.

"Nothing happened. They were just ... trying to scare me."

"And did they?"

"Yes," Lex's voice was barely a whisper.

"Good." Bruce rolled off his bed and crawled onto Lex's, sliding behind him so his back was against the wall, an arm draped lightly over Lex's hip away from his taped ribs.

"Stay in your own goddamn bed, Bruce."

"No."

"I don't need this."

"Maybe I do." That stopped Lex cold. Bruce could almost hear the thoughts rushing through his brain, trying to put together pieces, trying to figure out every angle, every reason. Any weakness that someone might exploit.

"Lex," Bruce said, and his voice was softer. "You've got to stop doing this, or you're going to end up dead. Is that what you want?"

Silence was Bruce's only answer. He leaned his forehead lightly against the back of Lex's head. He had no idea what to do for Lex, how to soothe this wretched, aching need inside of him. He understood it--the darkness that came with losing the people you loved--but he was no closer to finding a balm for it than Lex. He pressed a hand tighter against Lex's hip.

"Don't." A warning. Lex's voice was an unsheathed blade.

"I wouldn't." Bruce let his hand stroke gently against Lex's hip.

"Bruce."

"I need you alive, Lex. Not hurt or high or broken. Not bent over a table in the chem lab with some prick waving his cock in the air and making threats." Bruce kept his hand where it was, feeling Lex's almost imperceptible shift away. "One of these days, I might not be there."

"The risks were acceptable," Lex said firmly. "I can take care of myself."

"Yes, and you were doing a fine job when I got there."

"There were three of them."

"My point exactly. I know you can handle yourself, Lex--but the situation was out of control. I don't want to think what could've happened."

"What did you do to them?"

"The two lackeys were smart enough to have already bailed when I got back there."

"And Ramsey?"

"Was trying to salvage what he could of the drugs you flushed. We had a nice talk about how to properly lodge a complaint with customer service."

"There was nothing wrong with the stuff," Lex said indignantly.

"That's hardly the point," Bruce said, frustration growing in his voice. God, Lex got side-tracked so easily when he felt his precious reputation was at stake.

"I have a reputation to protect."

"Protecting your good name as a drug dealer is not high on my list of priorities right now."

"I'm a manufacturer, not a dealer."

"Lex, will you listen to yourself? You got beat up, drugged, and were two steps away from being raped. If you don't care ... well, I do. You think it was fun finding you like that?"

Bruce thought he felt Lex shake his head. "You scared the hell out of me. I could've ... I could've killed them, Lex. I wanted to. But I had to get you out of there. Do you understand?" Bruce didn't get scared. Generally, he didn't feel much of anything except indifference towards most people. But Lex wasn't most people. Lex brought out every protective urge he hadn't known he had--mostly because Lex's survival instincts seemed largely based in Greek tragedy. Not the best model for self-preservation.

"It wasn't supposed to be like that," Lex said softly. Bruce felt him shift, lifting his head off the pillow. Bruce took it as an opportunity to slip his arm beneath Lex's neck and wrap an arm protectively across Lex's chest. Lex didn't protest.

"No more drugs," Bruce said firmly.

"Don't tell me what to do."

Bruce sighed. Lex was impossible. "Fine. But no more deals that I don't know about."

"You hate getting involved."

"I hate seeing you hurt." Bruce felt Lex's shoulders relax slightly as he exhaled. It was as good as a surrender. Lex leaned back into Bruce's broad chest, let stiffness fall away like a discarded cloak, let himself be held.

"I'm sorry," Lex murmured.

"I know," Bruce replied. "Just stop trying to get yourself killed, okay? Who's going to help me train if you're not around?"

"Harry?" Lex asked innocently, and Bruce could almost see the smirk in the dark. Bruce smiled. They'd survived another round.

"Go to sleep, Lex."

It seemed like a long time before Lex's breathing evened out and Bruce knew he was asleep, a solid weight in his arms. He pulled Lex closer, careful not to wake him. He lay in the darkness and did not sleep.

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> For more information on the complete series, please see the first story in any of the _Shadows & Stone_ series.
> 
> Originally posted in 2004.


End file.
